


Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter - Fever Dreams

by WayWardWonderer



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes The Devil's Daughter
Genre: After, Alternate - Freeform, Fever, Gen, Hurt, Infection, Missing Scene, Nightmare, Post Credits, VideoGame, Wounded, credits aftermath, dream - Freeform, hallucination, ill, injured, sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 02:25:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15547545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WayWardWonderer/pseuds/WayWardWonderer
Summary: A possible post credits scene at the end of the videogame "Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter".  The title of the case implied so much more than was revealed in the end.  The life or death situation was truly nothing more than a vivid fever dream.





	Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter - Fever Dreams

The heat from the burning ferry was searing at Sherlock Holmes' skin as he watched the Madame Destiny smolder as it sank into the river with Lady Alice still aboard as its lone, suicidal and deranged passenger. Young Katelyn was resting her head against Sherlock's shoulder as Dr. John Watson rowed the boat carrying the trio from the burning ferry back to the shoreline to safety.

Despite the considerable distance between the small rowboat and the sinking ferry the fire seemed hotter than ever. Sweat beaded on Sherlock's forehead causing him to wipe the collected perspiration away on the sleeve of his gray overcoat.

Sherlock looked down at Kate, looked past the soot smudges that marred her tear stained face, and smiled.

She wasn't the Devil's Daughter. She was HIS Daughter. She was Katelyn Holmes.

"Kate, I'm sorry that I-" Sherlock suddenly stopped midsentence as a blinding light seemed to flash from nowhere and burned at his eyes. "What on Earth was-"

Looking about the row boat Sherlock realized that the vessel had stopped in the middle of the river. The Madame Destiny still burned, yet it seemed to stop sinking despite already being half way under the surface.

"My word, Watson, looked out there!" Sherlock turned to look at Watson over his shoulder only to see that the good doctor had seemingly disappeared. "Watson? Watson!"

In a panic Sherlock looked over the edge of the boat fearing Watson somehow fell overboard and was drowning. There was no sign of a disturbance in the water nor a sound to be heard.

"Kate, where is-" Turning back to look at his daughter he Sherlock was awestruck to see that she too had disappeared! "Kate?! KATE!?"

 _"Holmes, can you hear me?"_ Watson's voice seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. _"Come back to us, please."_

Sherlock looked all around in confusion trying to locate his friend, but there wasn't a trace of life anywhere to be seen.

"Watson... Kate..." Sherlock muttered their names as he sat alone in the rowboat. "Help me to find you..."

 _"Holmes? Holmes!"_ Watson's voice fought to penetrate the thick fog that encompassed Sherlock's unconscious mind. _"You're safe. So is Kate. She is with me."_

 _"Father? Daddy!"_ Kate's young pleading voice resonated higher and louder than Watson's voice through the fog. _"Please open your eyes!"_

"Open my eyes? But I'm already awake. Aren't I?" Sherlock thought aloud to himself as he looked about the eerie still river all around him. A shooting pain in his right side made him moan and pressed his hand to the sight of the discomfort. Drawing his hand back he saw that his palm was covered in blood. His blood. "My injury... It has reopened."

The bullet that had grazed Sherlock's side earlier that week had caused considerable bleeding, but it hadn't caused any internal damage. Yet the wound was now bleeding freely as if it were fresh.

"This isn't... this isn't right." Sherlock told himself as he closed his eyes tight and clenched his blood palm into a fist. "The isolation, the heat, the pain, the flash of light, the muffled voices..." Opening his eyes slowly Sherlock looked up at the dark sky overhead as the pieces of this strange puzzle all seemed to fall into place. "Kate... You want me to open my eyes. Then that must mean I am in fact asleep, I am dreaming... No!"

Replacing his hand to his forehead he felt the intense heat that was radiating from within his own body, rather than being applied externally from the fire of the burning ferry in the distance.

"I'm hallucinating!"

* * *

Watson was sitting on the edge of Sherlock's bed and leaning over his feverish friend with a cold compress beneath his hand as he pressed his palm down over Sherlock's feverish forehead. Kate was standing beside the bed with her hands folded together nervously as she watched Watson tending to the intense fever that had overtaken Sherlock in the night and threatened to steal his life.

Laying in the bed with his white shirt unbuttoned to allow easy access to the white gauze bandage wrapped around his side, the ill detective battled the infection that had set in due to his personal neglect of his own wound.

The quilt was pulled up over his legs to keep him comfortable, but not pulled up so high as to keep him too warm while his body was being consumed by a dangerous fever.

Watson lifted Sherlock's eyelids and checked his glassy eyes with a quick flash of light from a small lantern illuminated by candlelight. The light caused his pupils to constrict in response to the brightness and the sudden jerking movements away from Watson's hands indicated a painful response to the sudden light.

"Please Father," Kate begged again as she watched Sherlock's eyes moving frantically back and forth beneath his closed eyelids. "wake up! I'm sorry I was so cross with you! Please!"

"He'll be okay, Kate." Watson soothed as he wrapped his other hand around Sherlock's wrist and counted his pulse. Sherlock's hand twitched slightly as his head lolled toward Watson. "He's coming around! Holmes? Wake up."

"Watson?" Sherlock hoarsely asked as his eyes opened. Looking past Watson Sherlock's eyes met Kate and he smiled. "Kate. You're back."

"Back? But I haven't gone anywhere."

"What about-"

"Easy Holmes, rest." Watson insisted as he moved his hand from Sherlock's wrist and placed it lightly on his abdomen near the infected wound. "Your injury became infected. No doubt as a result of your physical exertion during our little encounter with the false assassination attempt of Mr. Albeit at his estate; not to mention being contaminated by who knows how many chemicals and raw materials at the foundry. And having been in so close proximity to the late Lord Marsh who was deathly ill with tuberculosis."

"Where is... Miss Alice?" Sherlock asked as the fog began to lift from his mind. "Where did she go?"

"Alice left!" Kate replied sadly. "She said she had to go and left two nights ago. I said goodbye to her myself."

"She's gone?" Sherlock's tone seemed as light as it was confused. "Wish I could've seen her off myself..."

"Really now?" Watson's hand lifted the compress and his bare palm pressed down against Sherlock's forehead. "You're still quite feverish. You must try to get some rest if you're going to fend off this infection." Replacing the compress Watson turned to look at Kate over his shoulder. "Could you please fetch Mrs. Hudson for me?"

"Yes, of course! Don't worry Father, I'll be right back!" Kate declared as she rushed out of Sherlock's room in search of their landlady Mrs. Hudson elsewhere in the flat.

"Watson?" Sherlock addressed his friend with a low tone of voice. "Tell me, did Alice do anything to my daughter?"

"Alice? No. All she did was give her piano lessons and a book to read. Why do you ask?"

"And Alice is truly gone?"

"Yes. Alice has moved out. She's apparently gone to live in New Orleans over in America." Watson was dumbfounded by the seeming obsession with Alice. "Holmes, what's wrong?"

"Watson... I had the most horrible nightmare." Sherlock admitted as he sighed somberly. "That Alice woman... She was a cold-hearted witch. She... practiced the dark arts, she wanted revenge and she tried to turn Kate against me! And she nearly succeeded at the cost of Kate's life..."

"But she didn't. It was all a terrible dream. Kate is safe with us and that woman is gone from our lives." Watson reassured his friend in a soothing manner. "Try to relax. If you don't let yourself recover then you'll never heal."

"I will do my best." Sherlock stated confidently. "And Watson?"

"Yes?"

"We must remember to do something special for Kate. Her birthday is soon, is it not?"

"Yes, it is. Two days from now, actually." Watson gave his friend an astonished glance. "Perhaps you're already on the mend Holmes, you never remember birthdays!"

"For Kate, I will remember everything about her."

_**-The End** _


End file.
